Archers thread #176: In which Ian puts the I in PTA. Discuss The Archers here.

[Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g]

Thank you, @PseudoBadger, for kicking off this long, long series of Archers threads.

All views on The Archers welcome here! New blood welcomed, and of course we are always delighted to welcome back former or occasional listeners/posters. We don't all agree on all points, although we do mostly try to be civil about it. Most of us are posting tongue in cheek a lot of the time, so don't worry about revealing that you'd like to hear more from Wesley the ashtray collector, or other unusual views.

Spoilers: not on this thread, please! We don't wait for the omnibus to discuss the weeknight episodes, but we do try our best to avoid cross-contamination from https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/radio_addicts/4636789-the-archers-spoilers-thread-7-cant-wait-for-702pm-join-us-here, where spoilers are positively welcomed!

For newer listeners, lurkers or those who just have no idea what we're talking about, @DadDadDad has created this useful thread: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/radio_addicts/3557323-For-Archers-fans-a-guide-to-acronyms-on-the-long-running-discussion-threads-and-any-other-meta-thread-questions-you-may-have - BOOP point for him! (See thread for explanation.)

Thanks to @DeanElderberry for the pithy phrase in the thread title and @CaptainMyCaptain for suggesting it should go in there. At least we've got the spooky disco out of the way for now. Plenty of wooden dialogue in the last few episodes that could go on the village bonfire next week. It's all been too dispiriting to discuss in greater depth. I'll just say that I don't hold out any great hopes that the production team will make a good job of reflecting concern in the farming community about the changes announced in the Budget to inheritance tax for farms. So often they get an expert to talk them through stuff like this but instead of ending up with a realistic storyline they pick out the bits they like the sound of and cobble them together in a totally unrealistic way. Maybe I'll be proved wrong this time. I hope so.

Over to you!

I wonder why on earth my previous post was hidden before it even showed up at all.... It's back now, but that was weird: I clicked on "Post" and it showed as hidden immediately.

Maybe it was the word arson

must be something on auto pick up in there

Well, it's back now anyway. It was just a strange feeling being censored so fast.

OK, small numbers, but how does that number stack up against the total number of e-bikes and scooters in circulation? It's also increased quite a bit year on year. London Fire Brigade reported 8 fires caused by e-bikes and e-scooters in 2019. This rose to twenty-four in 2020 and fifty-nine by December 2021. https://nfcc.org.uk/our-services/position-statements/e-bikes-and-e-scooters-fire-safety-guidance/

Fires sparked by faulty e-bikes and e-scooters have injured at least 190 people in the UK and killed eight, the Guardian can reveal, as a surge in public enthusiasm for battery-assisted travel is matched by a more than quadrupling in blazes since 2020. https://www.theguardian.com/news/2023/may/02/e-bike-e-scooter-battery-fires-uk-data

Also, like many other novelties, I suspect people haven't realised there was a risk until fires started happening. We all know it's dangerous to smoke in bed or leave a chip pan unattended and over the years most people have modified their behaviour accordingly. The various news reports I've seen about fires caused by people storing their e-bike in the front hall always include a comment that the family concerned had no idea this was a fire risk.

I saw a car burst into flames once, on Chancery Lane. It was very spectacular. Nobody hurt, fortunately. No idea what precipitated it.

(not in UK) everyone cycles here. Tiny little children on proper pedal bikes to my 90 year old neighbour who cycles 3km to the bakery and back every day, rain or shine.

These days a fair few have e-bikes. I haven't heard about extra fires because of them, but i haven't been looking. I don't have an e-bike but it's only a matter of time i think.

I want to smack Jolene & Kenton's heads together. And i want Tracy to tell Justin to leave Brad alone. Bit of a non-episode for me, tbh

Also not in UK. Cycling network is pretty good here, although people at the yard still regard me with (unwarranted) amazement for riding my E-bike most days (10km each way). I'd be far too lazy to do this on a normal bike, but the motor assist allows me to ride it at "man" levels of speed, etc., while feeling like I'm biking pretty calmly. Managed to save nearly 5k km of driving this year, which I promptly used up by driving c. 2500km each way to a conference, when trains and plane proved to be unmanageable...

The beneficial effects of seeing the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future didn't last long with Justin, did they?

I wish they'd dead Justin as an early Christmas present for us.

Though that might set Lillian off crying and I still remember with a shudder her endless snotty bawling when Paul died.

I'd take any amount of endless snotty bawling if it came with Dead Justin. It would be hilarious.

Obviously I have no heart, I probably need some spectral interventions to show me the error of my ways.

yes but without the cycling it would have been 10k km over the year.

It's flat here so people tend to cycle relatively long distances. We cycle to football in the summer which is 20km ecah way. We often have groups of elderly (older than us) people zooming past us.

Justin to get deded? I'll sign up for that.

Agh what an excruciating 'topical insert' on the farmers' protests. Such unikely and wooden dialogue. Such a lack of exploration. Regardless of their stances, farming family members would have lively opinions on it, as would the tenant farmers and workers and rural precariat. Instead we get Leonard's gentle metro scolding.

Do the SWs have any interest in representing contemporary rural lives and economies beyond soap relationships? I now imagine the set being run by the sort of patronising, cynical production team and pretentious, needy actors depicted in The Killing of Sister George.

I was zapped in Style & Beauty for using the banned word which means the sort of flat canvas and rubber shoes which those of us of the generation before trainers became ubiquitous used to wear with gym skirts for PE. It starts with P ands with L

Plimsoll? Goodness me, what on earth is wrong with that? Takes me back to the early days of the internet when in certain places it was tricky to talk about fuchsias, Scunthorpe, Pakistan etc. My husband worked in university IT and in the very early days of email there was some sort of autocensorship for a very brief period, rapidly scrapped when academics with solid professional reasons for using words like sex in their communications complained.

Good god, you're right. Autohidden. Is it a codeword?

Is there a known troll with a fondness for the word, perhaps?

Plimsoll? Is it a rude word in a other language?

how thoroughly bizarre

Oh - isn’t there someone from on Mumsnet who lurks on these threads? Would be great to understand why the word is auto hidden

Well, that was quick. In future should I feel the need to refer to that particular kind of obsolete footwear I'll stick to gym shoes.

Apparently that's the reason but's an enormous sledge hammer to crack a very tiny nut.

I'm also not sure what is so terrible about trolls. Ignore 'em or report 'em if they bother you (general you) that much. That seems preferable to zapping innocent posters automatically.

Maybe they are trying to change our language one word at a time until we are fully americanised

Agreed. There was a troll a year or so ago who only appeared late in the evening and whatever topic s/he started with, within a few posts the obsession came out - water purity and (I think) fish or eels. Very odd. Amusing to start with, then a bit tiresome, but easy enough to ignore.

It's apparantly automatically banned. The spam/ troll/ profanity filter finds it.

Bit like the problem the good citizens of Scunthorpe had in the early days of the internet. Now MN has no problem with Scunthorpe but has a fit of vapours over the P ending in L word.

It's not that obsolete ! Trotters children's wear website sells them for children and adults using that name. I bought a pair in Liberty last year.

Back in the Welsh valleys such gym shoes were called daps.
A lovely word, and hopefully not banned!

Hi new to this thread I have listening to the ar hers now fir months. I am annoyed about the George storyline how come they so angry with him but don't care that alice actually was drunk in the car . No she wasn't driving but she was in the car I am sure that's wrong. Yes he lied but no one mentioned how he was trying to help her.
Alice family hypocritical give her a job even though was drunk but sacked George
That story line annoyed me alot